The Official Venmo Blog

November 06, 2017 · by Josh Criscoe

Friendsgiving is a magical Thanksgiving feast where friends come together to share a meal, imbibe some drink, and remember experiences together.

Over the last few years, Friendsgiving has grown in popularity and people have increasingly used Venmo to split the grocery bill. Based on our number crunching, the term “Friendsgiving” was used more than 25K times on Venmo in November 2016, a 141% increase over November 2015.

To help bring more food to more people this holiday, Venmo has teamed up with ALDI, one of the fastest growing grocery stores in the U.S., and Feeding America®, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, to encourage people to add a new tradition of giving to their Friendsgiving celebrations.

Every time you use the custom-designed Turkey Hand Friendsgiving emoji in a Venmo payment this November, ALDI will donate 10 meals to people in need through Feeding America, up to one million meals.

The Turkey Hand is an ALDI and Venmo custom-designed emoji that brings the spirit of Friendsgiving to your phone. The emoji, inspired by the nostalgic childhood craft, symbolizes the essence of Friendsgiving: sharing and giving.

To activate an ALDI donation with your payment, use the Turkey Hand emoji in your payment note. You can select the Turkey Hand emoji by tapping on the emoji picker or type “Friendsgiving” and choose the Turkey Hand emoji for your payment note.

By creating the first-ever Friendsgiving emoji and teaming up with ALDI, we are happy to help people feed hungry families in America while celebrating the season with friends and family.

Now grab your friends, bring your appetites and and get those Friendsgiving celebrations underway.